I had it in my head to look for a place that is allegedly haunted for my new place. So I googled Tacoma and Haunted and found the former site of the Children’s Industrial Home (an orphanage). The orphanage which had been on the site was constructed 1904 at a cost of $7,500.  The building looked like a mansion and held up to thirty children.  It was called the “Home on the Hill”.

In September of 1944 the furnace and the boiler in the building’s basement exploded and thankfully none of the children were seriously hurt, though two of the adults were injured. A TPL photo of the damage can be found here.

And another photo of the original building and some of the darling children can be found here.

The insurance company declared the building a complete loss and it was torn down.  A new facility was constructed on the site later. The youthful occupants of the current site complain about hearing crying at one end of the “new” building and adult staff members have reported seeing ghosts of children playing around the building.

More history of the facility can be found here.

Respecting the privacy of the current facility, I snapped a photo of a lone tree towards the top of the hill away from the buildings.